Winemaker Notes
Intense fragrance of ripe black fruit, plum, blueberry and blackcurrant over a Mediterranean herbs base with hints of black chocolate and licorice. In the mouth, the breadth of flavors is enhanced by fine tannins that make the wine powerful and structured, and as a result becomes enveloping and voluptuous. A grand wine, with amazing character.
Blend: 82% Tempranillo, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Graciano.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Ripe and intense red with tempranillo, graciano and a touch of cabernet sauvignon. Jumps out of the glass with crushed flowers and berries. Full body, round and juicy tannins and a flavorful finish. Shows excellent potential.
Barrel Sample: 94-95
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Exceptionally, I also tasted an unbottled sample of the 2016 Dalmau Reserva, which will be launched in January 2019, as they want to show the public the change in the 2016 vintage. 2016 saw a very good growing season, and the harvest was in late September. It feels like a very young Bordeaux blend, elegant and powerful. And as I saw in the other 2016 I sampled (the Reserva), this has gained in precision (it fermented at 24 degrees Celsius, quite cold for a red), avoiding too much extraction, and that seems noticeable in the texture and the quality of the tannins, sleek, velvety, more elegant, focused and sophisticated. This has all the traces to be the most elegant and finest vintage of Dalmau to date.
Barrel Sample: 94-95
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Wine Enthusiast
A fully ripe nose runs deep with balsamic black fruit aromas as well as complex notes of graphite and fine oak. A plush palate offers that elusive depth of character that great wines display, while this modern-style Rioja tastes of black fruits as well as chocolate. A silky smooth finish shows barely any grit or bite. Drink now through 2028.
Editors' Choice -
Wine & Spirits
A blend of tempranillo (82 percent), cabernet sauvignon (15 percent) and graciano planted in stony, iron-rich clay soils in 1950, this wine is firm and youthfully tense, built to last. The initial mineral scent runs straight through to the end, playing off the herbal savor of bay laurel and the muscular, plummy density.
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Wine Spectator
Floral and citrus blossom aromas give this red an exotic appeal. Bright cherry, red currant and licorice flavors are lively and harmonious. Citrusy acidity and light, firm tannins complete the balanced picture. Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Graciano. Drink now through 2026.
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.